sail_ooc | TEST DRIVE MEME #10

a. that's where we both belong

[you wake up.

it doesn't matter where you were before. going to bed? dying? opening the door to face a great evil? same result. you wake up in a soft bed with starched sheets in a cool, darkened room, sunlight peeking out from behind thick curtains. maybe you're alone; maybe you aren't. maybe you immediately notice the folded paper on the bedside table near your head. if you don't, you better fix that real quick: you won't be able to even open the door before you read it.

the note itself is written in a neat hand on white card stock; there is a stylized logo of a ship with the words SERENA ETERNA printed underneath. the note reads as follows:

Dear Passenger(s),

As your cruise director, it is my great honor to welcome you aboard the Serena Eterna, your destination for fun and adventure! We know you could have chosen any cruise line for your vacation, and we're very grateful you chose ours! On behalf of the Captain, I would like to assure each and every passenger that will we do whatever it takes to fulfill all your needs and desires during your journey with us.

At your earliest possible convenience, please attend the mandatory lifeboat drill by the end of the day. I'm sure everyone is very eager to get started on all the fun and sun, but safety always comes first! You can find your life jacket in your cabin's closet; carry it to your assigned muster station on deck one, where I will take you through the drill. If you can't find me in the crowd, just look for the gal with the winning smile!

See You Real Soon!

Sincerely,
Gal Friday

you walk to deck one. you have no other choice: every time you try to step in a direction some unseen being considers "not towards deck one," you find your legs no longer move, staying stock still, frozen. whether compelled quickly by curiosity, or delayed by pure stubbornness, the result is the same, and you are left milling around with other similarly curious or stubborn people.

you see someone in uniform near the front of the crowd. she seems to be a gal, but is missing the winning smile, along with most of her other features. she seems to see you, though, rushing to your side and placing a lei around your neck with great formality. a voice, cheery but artificial, sees to come from nowhere and everywhere.]

Welcome aboard! I'm so happy you could join us!

[you touch the lei. rooster feathers, lotus seeds, and a carved circle of something white and hard, linked onto a silk string.

after the drill is completed, you are seemingly free to go. or, well, your legs work, now. and maybe that's as good as it's gonna get.]

b. and there's plenty of that down by the sea

[it’s strange to think about, isn’t it? how all those new passengers, the ones grumbling or shouting their way through the forced muster drill, have absolutely no idea what happened just last month. no idea about the labyrinth. no concept of why anyone around them would be a bit more hesitant around shadows.

they’ll learn.

sometimes a shadow is darker than it’s supposed to be. very rarely does anything come of that; just a vague sense that someone is watching you, and little more. sometimes, though, the shadows move. sometimes they grab at your ankles as you walk. sometimes they give you a shove as you go down the stairs. sometimes they pull your hair, or pinch your arm.

sometimes you feel something sharp cut into your lower leg.

that’s not a shadow, though. that’s a fiddler crab. you see the crab, sometimes. the cut isn’t from its claws, which don’t look very intimating; it’s not a very large crab. the cut is from the large kitchen knife crudely taped onto its back. it’s probably fine. it's not chasing you. there isn't evil in its heart. probably.]

c. think I'll go back to the Keys

[one day, in the atrium, two pedestals suddenly appear. on each is a large button: one green, and one blue. pressing the blue button gives you a little treat, popping out of thin air next to you. pressing the green button sends a small electric shock through your body. weird, but, hey, pretty avoidable, right?

except, it seems to be spreading. to every other button on board.

in the elevator. on the soda machine. the arcade. your phone. the bell on Friday’s desk.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I missed prom? That's so not fair. Though knowing my luck, I'd end up in a red dress again. For some reason, when we get assigned clothes for excursions or events, I usually end up in red."

"It was a lot of fun. I'm sorry you weren't here for it." There are a few people she wished had been able to be there for it, though she wouldn't have wished them back on the ship for it.

"Some people were able to pick their own outfits, I think." She and Vance hadn't been among them, but it had turned out alright. "Not a fan of the color red?"

"If you had hair like mine, wouldn't you stick to blues?"

To fit the theme, of course. To fit the role someone else decided for her.

"I don't know. Maybe."

If she'd asked Chrissy that about a year ago, the answer would have been an immediate yes. She's good at keeping her head down and filling the role that someone else decided for her. She's also pretty tired of doing that.

"I like your hair. And I think you should wear whatever you want that makes you happy."

"I like my hair, too. Though I also like yours. Would you let me play with it sometime? Maybe for a party or something?"

That's what normal teenage girls do, right?

"Good. And thank you. I've worn it like this for as long as I can remember."

Specifically, because her mother would never let her cut it. Something about girls not having short hair. "Yea, that might be fun. I've considered cutting a bit off but I'm not sure."

"It'll revert to the length you had if you die, right? So there's really no reason not to; it'll grow back or come back eventually."

And a bob might look adorable on Chrissy.

"Really?" Somehow, that isn't even something she had considered. She's been here for nearly a year and she still hasn't managed to work up the nerve to actually change her hair for whatever reason.

"Maybe I will cut it, then!" It's not that she dislikes her hair the way it is so much as that she'd just like to do something different for once. "...Do you know how to cut hair?"

"Not really, but I'd still be willing to try. If you're up for it?"

How hard can it be???

"My hair grows pretty fast, so even if it turns out weird, it won't be that big a deal."

Chrissy's not terribly worried about it. She's been getting it trimmed just enough to avoid split ends for her entire life. And now, there's nobody here to tell her no or give her the stink-eye about it.

"Then...to the salon!"

After all, the Calgona spa has facilities for just this sort of work.

"Let's go!"

It's possible that she's a bit too excited about this. It's also possible that she might regret suggesting it at all. But like she'd told Undine, it won't take that long for her hair to grow back out, and there's no telling how she'll feel about it unless she goes through with it.

And so they scurry off to the salon, where Undine gestures to one of the shampoo bowls. "Lemme wash your hair first, see what sort of texture we're dealing with."

It's nothing like hers or Ava's, after all.

As far as impulse decisions go, this one seems to keep getting better. Chrissy glances at the bowl and then back at Undine, before nodding.

"Okay." It's not something she'd been expecting, but she's not going to say no if the other girl is serious. "If you're sure it's no trouble," she says.

"Naw, no trouble at all. When I was on the ship before, I used to do Ava's hair for her sometimes. Braids, mostly. And teaching her how to get moisture into her curls."

Scrubby-scrubby goes here.

"That's really nice of you! Is helping people with their hair something you did at home, too?"

What are the odds? She's curious, and it seems like a fairly reasonable question. Or maybe she's completely off base here. It can be hard to guess, sometimes.

“Sometimes. They used to use me to advertise shampoo, so I’d get questions in fan mail about hair care sometimes.”

Makes her sound more like a celebrity than someone out there fighting for her life every night, huh?

"Oh. Did you enjoy it?"

Chrissy can't really tell, and the way Undine has mentioned it doesn't really make the answer obvious.

She doesn't answer absolutely immediately, pursing her lips.

"Not really. But I thought it was necessary, at the time."

It's not really the answer she's expecting, so Chrissy can't help but feel a little bad about unintentionally poking at a sore spot.

"That must have been really tough. I'm sorry."

TEST DRIVE MEME #10

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